The L.A. Times music blog

Coachella 2012: Remaining $285 passes to go on sale Friday

January 9, 2012 | 7:47
pm

Three-day passes for the two April weekends of Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will be available on the fest's official site beginning at 10 a.m. Friday PST. Since the lineup was announced Monday afternoon, the Coachella site has been struggling to manage the traffic influx and has been largely shut down.

Rapper Dr. Dre will close the 2012 edition of the annual Indio festival, to be held for the first time over consecutive weekends, the first April 13-15 and the second April 20-22. Each weekend, featuring identical lineups, is a separate ticket. Only weekend passes are available.

Titckets were first sold for the 2012 editions of Coachella in June 2011. They were available for only a week, and it was unknown how many were snatched in the initial on-sale. Though the event was 10 months out and artists had yet to be announced, multiplying Coachella into separate festivals to be staged over consecutive April weekends didn’t seem to lessen the immediate rush for tickets. Wait times for tickets varies, but a 35-minute queue wasn't out of the ordinary.

The June on-sale marked the first time Goldenvoice, Coachella's promoter, used Front Gate tickets rather than the more ubiquitous Ticketmaster for the general on-sale. Once charges were factored in, a general admission three-day pass came to about $315, but the Coachella site was loaded with options, ranging from shuttle trips to VIP passes. Depending on the package chosen, two Coachella tickets could push $1,300.

Tickets that will go on-sale Friday will range from $285 for a three-day pass to $665 to a VIP festival pass. There is also a general admission ticket that includes a hotel shuttle option for $335. All prices noted are quoted without the addition of service fees. It is recommended that those intending to purchase tickets should set up their account on the Coachella page Thursday evening.

While it was unknown how many tickets Goldenvoice had already sold for the weekends, the promoter had previously announced that it would not be offering a layaway option beyond the June pre-sale. The layaway plan offered fest-goers the ability to place 10% down and then make eight equal monthly payments.

Fans were allowed to buy tickets for each weekend, should they be inclined, but festival passes will be limited per household. In June, passes were limited to four per household. Additionally, fans will not be allowed to change weekends once a purchase has been made. Passes will be mailed in March. International attendees will have the option of picking up their passes at an off-site will call.

Though Coachella will close with a double hip-hop pairing of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on the Sunday evenings, rock acts will get top billing the other nights. Bluesey rockers the Black Keys will anchor a Friday that will also feature singer-songwriter Cat Power, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff and psychedelic electronic act M83. Radiohead will close the festival's Saturday evenings, with breakout indie star Bon Iver, reclusive indie rocker Jeff Mangum and noIse instrumentalists Godspeed You Black Emperor also on the bill.